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9 September 2012

Museo Galileo - Florence

One of the many hidden gems in
Florence is definitely the Museo Galileo. Overlooking the River Arno, just a
short distance from the Uffizi Gallery, and recently renamed from the rather
more descriptive title: Istituto di
Storia della Scienza, this immaculately presented collection illustrates
the transformation of speculative experimental philosophy into the rigorous
discipline of scientific enquiry.

The Museum’s collections, founded
upon those begun by the princes and dukes of the Medici and Lorraine dynasties
which ruled over Tuscany from the 14th to the 19th
centuries, are displayed over two floors and comprise a bewilderingly wonderful
range of early scientific instruments – from enormous armillary spheres, intricate
astrolabes, noturnals, beautiful globes, telescopes, and delicate glass
thermometers, to detailed and accurate wax models of the human body and huge
electrical conducting apparatus. The displays are all neatly laid out with
beautifully clear graphics and explanations in both Italian and English. The
centrepiece of the Museum though is the famous lens through which Galileo
Galilei (1564-1642) first observed the satellites of Jupiter, naming them the Medicea Sidera, or the Medicean Stars,
in honour of his patrons, along with one of his telescopes – a beautiful
object, covered in red leather and decorated with elaborate gold tooling.

The first floor is devoted to the
Medicean collections and begins with an impressive array of armillary spheres.
These instruments represent models of the universe based on the Ptolemaic
system (first described in the 2nd century AD), and show the orbits
of the planets around the terrestrial globe, the various rings representing the
main celestial spheres, showing the equator, the tropics, and the polar
circles, as well as the relative positions of the constellations of the zodiac.
Such devices were used in the study and instruction of astronomy. In this era,
before proper observational astronomy had really begun, astronomy itself was a
study aimed primarily at accurately determining the measurement of time. The
motions of the heavenly bodies were studied mainly for the purposes of
predicting the dates of certain religious festivities by means of accurate
calculations – establishing a reliable calendar, and also enabling the
refinement of astrological predictions. Other instruments were similarly
devised or improved for calculating time, such as astrolabes, nocturnals,
sundials, quadrants, and later on clocks too. These devices enabled the user to
carry out complicated algebraic calculations simply by manipulating a few
mobile parts and thereby negating the need for pen, paper, and time-consuming complex
mathematical formulae. These instruments had distinct practical applications
too which were quickly seen and taken up by cartographers and navigators intent
on pursuing potential mercantile interests in the New World, as well as by military
strategists and surveyors, who – for example – quickly saw the potential for
enhanced accuracy in ballistics, calculating the parabolas of projectiles, etc.,
and thereby beginning the transformation of warfare from what was essentially
seen as a chivalric art into an applied science, sowing the seeds for the
deadly advances of modern technology as implemented in warfare, which we sadly know
all too well today.

The Medici collections also
comprise a number of maps and globes which demonstrate the evolution of
cartography and in particular the famous Mercator projection. Again many of the
advances here were to the benefit of navigators who were intent on exploring
the realms of the New World in pursuit of trade and empire. And these charts
were closely allied to the scientific instruments used for calculating time and
position – in particular the quest to determine longitude. Many of Galileo’s
experiments and observations, even in the subject of astronomy, were actually
made in the pursuit of determining longitude or for enhancing military aims. In
Galileo’s view all of these pursuits were unified in one over-arching
discipline: mathematics. He summed up his world view thus: “Philosophy is written in this grand book, the universe, which stands
continually open to our gaze. But the book cannot be understood unless one
first learns to comprehend the language and read the letters in which it is
composed. It is written in the language of mathematics, and its characters are
triangles, circles, and other geometric figures without which it is humanly
impossible to understand a single word of it.” (Galileo Galilei, 1623).

Galileo helped move science on from
the long established notions of Ptolemy and Aristotle at great cost to himself
and yet entirely to our debt even to this day in our modern era. To my mind,
the simple fascination with the mechanics of the universe, and the unfathomable
depths of all that we do not know, is still embodied in the simplest of
observations, the nightly changes in position of the Galilean satellites around
the bright dot of Jupiter through a pair of binoculars is enough to inspire awe
and wonder in any observer – and it is impossible to do so without thinking of
Galileo.

The first floor also contains an
impressive array of early thermometers, many of which represent elegant
masterpieces of the glassmakers’ skill. These astonishingly tall and
frighteningly gracile devices, marked with a series of colour-coded gradations
for accurately measuring changes in atmospheric temperature using alcohol
rather than mercury, must be a real challenge to safely curate and preserve!

The second floor is devoted to the
instruments collected or commissioned under the auspices of the Dukes of
Lorraine. Here there are many wax models of human anatomy, as well as larger
and more advanced telescopes and microscopes, and eventually various examples
of dauntingly elaborate pneumatic and electrical equipment. These objects in
particular demonstrate how the somewhat arcane procedures and texts of the early
alchemists coalesced into the actual sciences of chemistry, physics, and
medicine; and how such experimentation eventually moved into the popular realm
of parlour room education and entertainment.

For those interested in the history
of science, as well as the overlap between artistic interpretation and
empirical evaluation, the Museo Galileo is well worth a few leisurely spent hours
of thought-provoking perusal – a little known but highly commendable cabinet of
curiosities in one of the most beautiful and venerable old cities of Europe.